Alexandra Von Fuerst work challenges perceptions of identity and reality to recreate understanding in modern philosophy, questioning the impact of human action on the relationship between body and nature.
Alexandra Von Fuerst, visual artist, creative director and photographer based in Paris, tells ONEG the power of adaptation our life, expecially our way of thinking changing the approch to the events and many others factors that live with us every day.
Like an artist and a photographer, how do you identify elements to create artwork and subjects to snap? What is your research and inspiration method?
The choice of the subject matter is rather instinctive following intuitive knowledge expanding and combining with experience. Inspirations come from a variety of backgrounds, such as classical and contemporary art (including painting, sculpture, performance, installation, photography) , scientific and philosophical research, as well as empirical knowledge from personal and daily interests. My research method mainly adapts according to the type of project, the final output and the presence of guidelines. In general it always starts with a philosophical concept at the core of the image series, which transforms its content according to a container. What I noticed over the years is in fact the constant changeability of my work, to adapt to different situations and moments of my life. The same principle applies to the method, as it changes each day with the experience of the previous one.
Which emotions do you feel during your creation phase? Is there an inner world that wants to emerge at all costs? If so, can you describe it?
When creating an image my inner sense and feeling becomes absolute master and priority. Photography allows me to be and connect to my inner consciousness, a voice of truth among the chaos of everyday life. When working on an image I find a place of inner quiet and complete devotion, a closeness to beauty for each subject I encounter. Photography is my healing, a place of love amongst all. The worlds that appear as a result naturally materializes, it’s a transposition of my soul into what I see, in a way I do simply allow myself to be transported by creation.
Observing many of your projects, you can see a very strong link with the color. You can tell us something about this liaison starting with, “In my opinion, colour is: -add an adjective”.
In my opinion colour is life.
I was born into a world of colours, this is what appears to me. Photography is light and, as this shines through the atmosphere, it diffuses through infinite particles of life, reflecting onto surfaces, materials, textures and shapes. Despite a social intention to categorise perception, what we perceive is unique for each being and colour is yet another form of creation transformed by our retina and through our brain. I consider myself lucky to see the world under such brightness and intensity.
For this digital issue, ONEG Magazine chooses ‘Union’ as the topic. What is for you Union and how do you think your art can tell that for the target?
Union to me is balance and acceptance. The more we accept reality in all its forms, the more we are able to create togetherness amongst ecosystems. Union in my opinion is an equilibrium between tangible and invisible, light and darkness, stillness and movement and so on. At the center of my work I feel there is a strong sense of acceptance and the wish to share this with the world. To create understanding for all manifestations of being, from the artificial to the natural, human and plant, a micro and macro cosmic dimension united through a common thread : beauty.
Are there any experiences in your life that lead yourself to art? Please, tell us something about significant background.
I believe that being an artist is an actual inherent value of each human being.
The way it manifests might differ yet it is present in all people alike. Being an artist means creating and that goes beyond the form you choose to use as a tool. I have been inspired by artistic creation since my childhood, as painting was amongst my most precious moments, even if doing it only for myself. The day my father gifted me a camera on my 16th birthday, I immediately knew there was more for me to learn about photography and decided to enrol as visual communication student at the university in Milan. Here I studied about the techniques and history of photography and finally decided to pursue a career in fashion, interested by the human body in its feminine form. Fashion seemed like the most obvious choice at the time yet never felt truly and completely the path I was looking for myself. Understanding started unveiling mainly during my travels across South East Asia from November 2017 and the couple of years that followed. At the present I feel having undergone a transition in my personal and professional life which created confidence and understanding in my role as an artist, mainly however as a result of events which occurred almost by itself and had no direct connection with my professional career. My current focus is primarily on bringing photography forward in relation to female identity, sexuality and environmental sustainability.
How did you and your art live through a pandemic explosion? How did you adapt your style to quarantine, if you have adapted it?
Personally I experienced the quarantine having a highly positive impact on my life as an artist.
In fact it gave me the opportunity to create time for self-reflection, to reposition myself in regards to where I am standing with my career and to connect to a wider spectrum of people than before. As a result of the pandemic, I started sharing my time with other creatives to discuss and exchange about the happenings, which ultimately lead to creating new opportunities of understanding for myself. Spending time completely by myself allowed me then to revaluate my goals and to start lying down the basics of projects I wish to create over the next months. I realised my art being independent from external conditions and being therefore able to exist under any circumstance and in any space. Style in this sense is not related to a visual yet to the hearth of an inner voice.
